Sydney group putting in a bid to host 2018 Scotties

SYDNEY — A Sydney group is putting in a bid to host the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women’s curling championship.

If the bid is successful, the event will be staged at Centre 200, Feb. 4-11, 2018.

Bid committee chair David Muise said the idea came after the area hosted the 2012 Canada 55+ Games, where curling was one of the sports hosted at the arena. Muise, a curler himself, as well as Garth Nathanson from the Sydney Curling Club and Centre 200 general manager Paul MacDonald began the process. The bid committee currently has seven people, including members of the Sydney and Schooner curling clubs, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and Events Cape Breton.

The deadline to submit the bid is June 30. Muise said Curling Canada will make its final decision in August.

“It’s never been here. Centre 200, the size of the facility is what they look for,” he said. “The Brier looks for 10,000 seats and over, the Scotties looks for 3,500 and over, so we have the capacity.

“We meet all the qualifications for hotel rooms, direct flights from Toronto. We meet all the technical stuff, so we decided to go ahead.”

Muise said he’s heard from Curling Canada and other venues that have hosted, and the estimated economic impact is between $3-5 million.

The four curling clubs on the island, the Sydney Curling Club, Schooner Curling Club, Baddeck Curling Club and Port Hawkesbury Curling Club are on board in helping the bid and to lend their time if successful. The Port Hawkesbury club has been involved with a number of past Grand Slam of Curling tournaments. The latest in the schedule, the Elite 10, will be held at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, March 16-18, 2017.

Muise said about 300 volunteers will be necessary make the tournament possible.

“You can go back to 1987 with the Canada Winter Games when we drew a lot of volunteers. Volunteers never seem to be a problem,” he said.

If the bid is successful, Colleen Jones will serve as the honorary chair of the event. The Halifax native has won two women’s world championships and skipped Team Nova Scotia to six Scotties titles.

“If we’re successful, we’ll involve her in promotion and she knows curlers everywhere,” said Muise. “She’ll be heavily involved in the promotion end.”

Along with curling, there are also plans for entertainment to be staged all week at the Joan Harris Cruise Pavillion.

In an effort to give the bid a boost, a pre-event ticket sales campaign will begin this week. Those looking to attend can put down a $100 deposit on a weeklong ticket package. Anyone interested can do so online at tickets.capebreton.ca.

Muise said any profits made at the conclusion of the event will be invested into junior curling programs.